Building blocks of fun; St. Peter Lego Club builds creativity in North Ridgeville

MORNING JOURNAL/SAM GREENE
Third grade teacher Debby Sisson oversees a classroom of students during a meeting of the Lego Club at St. Peter Catholic School in North Ridgeville. More than 30 student gather every second Tuesday for the Lego Club meetings.

MORNING JOURNAL/SAM GREENE
Second grade girls create their a scene, "Jesus' Resurrection" at St. Peter Catholic School in North Ridgeville.

NORTH RIDGEVILLE -- Creativity, friendship, fun and a whole lot of Lego building blocks are the ingredients that help to pack two classrooms with youngsters at St. Peter Catholic School right after the regular day ends.

The Lego Club at the school in North Ridgeville invites more than 30 students from grades one through eight to stay after school for about a half-hour every other Tuesday.

The club enables the children to flex some creative muscle and let their imaginations run wild with piles of donated Legos.

Third-grade teacher Debby Sisson hosts the club meetings.

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"We give them a theme each week, and every once in a while, there's a free day where they get to do their own thing," Sisson said. "Sometimes the older kids don't want to build the same themes as the younger ones, so they'll build and race cars in the hallway," she said. "That makes it fun for everybody. It's a club, not a class, so we want it to be fun."

The digital world that surrounds children today has actually made the classic analog toy more interesting to the students. Popular free-roam video games, such as "Minecraft," have helped spark an interest in the club, Sisson said.

For the students, the Lego Club is just plain fun.

The multicolored plastic bricks give the students a nearly limitless opportunity to express their creativity as they build people, vehicles, houses and buildings, animals and even entire scenes like a miniature movie set.

"Today's theme was super heroes, but it's a lot of fun when you get to build whatever you want," said third-grader Kyle Hrusch. "Today we built a house and a couple of cars. One time we built a speedboat," he said. "It's just fun to come build Legos like I do at home."

Third grader Travis Placido has come to enjoy spending time with his friends at the club. "It's very, very fun. The first day, it wasn't that fun, but I got used to it. Today I made a Superman." he said. "I have no idea how long it took. Maybe an hour. I can't even count all the pieces."

While bragging rights motivate many of the sophisticated creations, Sisson said the students also help each other learn through cooperation and mimicking their friends' designs. Castles and knights, Christmas, vehicles, ships and boats, pirates and even senior citizens are all themes that have inspired the students in the club.

"They have somebody to listen to them when they build something," Sisson said. "They have someone there to be impressed when they build something, or when they say, 'Look what I made!' she said. "I think they like the working together and the bragging rights. To be able to say, 'Hey look, I made that. That's mine.'"